Studer Community Institute

Making graduation a priority

May 15, 2015
/ Reggie Dogan
/ education

Increasing graduation rates is not only a priority for Escambia County School District but also for districts across the country. A person without a high school diploma in today’s economy faces nearly insurmountable odds that make it increasingly more difficult to find jobs, raise a family and become productive members of society. At 64 percent, Escambia County’s graduation is up 10 percent from a decade ago, but still lags behind neighboring Santa Rosa County, the state and national graduation rates in 2015. There is encouraging news for rising seniors as the number of high school students in the U.S. graduating in four years has reached record highs, and the groups of students who have traditionally lagged behind — mainly poor children of color — account for a lot of that improvement. But as The Atlantic reports in “Where Dropping Out is Going Up,” in a few states the percentage of students receiving diplomas is taking a big hit, including those that educate some of the highest concentrations of poor children of color. Read the full story here.

Back to Blogs

Making graduation a priority

Recent Posts